The China Earthquake Networks Center recorded a Magnitude 5.1 Earthquake at a depth of 7 km in Menyuan County in the northeast of Qinghai Province in northwestern China, slightly after 5.35 am local time on Friday 20 September 2013 (slightly after 9.35 pm on Thursday 19 September, GMT). The quake was felt strongly in the county's administrative center (also Menyuan) and as far away as Xining, 150 km to the south, and was also felt in Sunan County in Gansu Province to the north. There were have been no reports of any damage or casualties arising from this quake.
The approximate location of the 20 September 2013 Qinghai Province Earthquake. Google Maps.
Qinghai Province lies on the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau, a vast upland created by the impact of India and Eurasia; the 32 highest mountains in the world are on the Plateau (the 33rd, Tirich Mir, is in the nearby Hindu Kush, Afghanistan). India is still moving northwards, but Eurasia is unable to do the same, resulting in an unusual degree of folding and uplift. This has resulted in a number of faults running east-west across the plateau, with sections being forced eastward into China.
See also Magnitude 4.9 Earthquake in western Inner Mongolia, Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake beneath Lake Guozha, northwest Tibet, Earthquake kills at least five in Shangri La and Deqin Counties, Yunnan Province, China, Homes destroyed in Sichuan Earthquake and Series of Earthquakes in Gansu Province kills at least 95.
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